1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ejector for memory cards used with electronic still cameras, information processing apparatus or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, a memory card (also called an IC card) of about 2 mm thickness has been used widely as an external memory for an electronic still camera, information processing apparatus, or the like. The memory card is provided with a number of terminal holes at a front side for transferring a great amount of information to and from an apparatus main body. The apparatus main body is formed with a card receiving chamber which is provided at the innermost position thereof with a connector having a number of terminal pins. When the memory card is loaded in the apparatus main body, it is contained completely within the chamber. To move the memory card to the position at which an operator can manually draw it out, there is provided an ejector.
In an electronic still camera, whether a memory card is being loaded or not is checked from an echo signal in response to a check signal sent to the connector upon turning on the power source. If a memory card is still not loaded, an indication such as "00" is flashed on a liquid crystal panel to urge a user to load a memory card. When the memory card is loaded, an empty recording area is checked to display the number of frames capable of taking pictures or scenes, on the liquid crystal panel.
One known type of a conventional ejector is constructed such that, when an eject knob is slid, an eject member moves toward both lateral sides of a connector and pushes lateral ends of the front side of a memory card and moves it back to a card inlet port. As the front side lateral ends of the memory card are pushed, first the memory card is dismounted from the connector, and then the rear side of the card comes out of the card inlet port.
A connector and a card are coupled together by a plurality of terminal pins and holes, so that a relatively large force is required to dismount the memory card from the connector. In each of the terminal holes, a pair of contact segments are disposed to receive and tightly clamp one of the terminal pins inserted therebetween. In the above-described conventional ejector, the eject knob is formed integrally with the eject member. Force applied to the eject knob is directly transmitted to the eject member. Therefore, a relatively large force is required to dismount a memory card, posing a problem of a poor performance in manual handling.
When a power switch of a conventional electronic still camera is turned on, circuit components of the camera main body are powered to enter a standby state of photographing, even if a memory card is still not loaded and cannot actually take a scene, posing a problem of consuming unnecessary power. Furthermore, a conventional ejector is used with a card receiving chamber whose one wall is constituted by a printed circuit board mounted with a connector, along which circuit board a memory card is connected to the connector. Since the connector occupies a partial area of the printed circuit board, the number of components to be mounted on the board is reduced, thereby reducing the effective application of the circuit board.